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The Linked Data Project was approved by the Cochrane Steering Group in 2014 following their review of a document "#CochraneTech to 2020" prepared by the Cochrane Linked Data Project Board.

The paper recommended a linked data approach that would allow the Collaboration to make use of existing software and data stores, but would gradually extend and enhance them with linked data. The proposed implementation plan had 3 phases:

Foundation - To put into place the necessary people and systems to allow The Collaboration to address user stories with a linked data approach.

Exploration - To address a small, carefully selected set of user stories with the aim of exploring the applicability of linked data to specific situations while building and expanding the Cochrane ontology, vocabularies and linked data processes.

Production - To use linked data approaches to address mission-critical components of review production, publication and access by users.

It’s important to note that these phases are not distinct. They overlap more or less like this:For example, we already have a use case coming through in Spring 2014 that we need a linked data API to deliver. So, we jump from Foundation through exploration and into production via a short pipeline.

Overarching goals

Cochrane has vastly rich content and data stores that are currently locked up in both their backend data silos and in their front-end, one-size-fits-all PDF and HTML presentation formats. The adoption of linked data technologies will enable Cochrane to: